That means if a starter pilot at a regional airline is the breadwinner for a partner and a child, the household would qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, where the cutoff for a three-person household is just over $25,000. At some smaller regional airlines a starting pilot does even worse, earning just $15,000 a year, about equivalent to the federal minimum wage.

While pilots make more money working for one of the major airlines, the low-paying regional carriers are an integral part of the system, as the WSJ reports today:

Big airlines, whose pilot salaries are much higher, outsource about half of their domestic flights to these smaller partners to save money.

The big carriers set flight schedules and fares, sell the tickets and buy the fuel, leaving their regional counterparts little room to raise wages.

That structure has prevailed for years, but federal rules implemented in August have brought matters to a head by increasing the minimum flight experience required for most commercial-airline pilots to 1,500 hours from 250 hours. The new law has sharply increased the time and expense required to become a commercial pilot, rendering today’s starting wages even less attractive and crimping the already-tight supply of would-be aviators.

It’s a particularly harsh deal for new pilots, who have to spend a lot of money getting qualified. Even after training, some have to pay for the privelege of co-piloting cargo flights, just to log the flight hours needed to become a commercial pilot:

Training to become a commercial pilot can cost more than $100,000. To get the additional flying time they now need, pilots can work as instructors, which also offers meager pay, or pay for the additional time.

Miami-based Eagle Jet International Inc. charges trainees $57 an hour to be co-pilots on its cargo flights, which are under a different regulatory regime than big commercial passenger operations.